Carl Lewis Offers Harsh Suggestion For U.S. Track After Olympic Relay Disaster

Olympic great Carl Lewis went scorched-earth on USA Track and Field and its coaches after the men’s 4x100 relay team botched a handoff to get disqualified from the Paris Olympics final Friday.

The faulty exchange between Christian Coleman and Kenny Bednarek will stand in a litany of U.S. relay failures at the Summer Games. The U.S. has not medaled in the event in 20 years.

Lewis, who won gold medals on the 1984 and 1992 Olympic relay squads, took to X, formerly Twitter, to vent.

“It is time to blow up the system,” he wrote, before tagging USA Track and Field. “This continues to be completely unacceptable. It is clear that EVERYONE at @usatf is more concerned with relationships than winning. No athlete should step on the track and run another relay until this program is changed from top to bottom.”

Lewis, now the head track coach at the University of Houston, won nine Olympic gold medals as a sprinter and long jumper.